WFP cuts force aid retreat

Funding cuts have forced the World Food Programme to end support for more than half a million Palestinians each month starting October, Shaun Hughes, the WFP's representative for Palestine, said.

Summer aid covered three-quarters

This summer, WFP programmes helped feed three-quarters of Gaza's population, about one point six million people, but funding has fallen by more than half from twenty twenty-five levels.

October cuts scale back coverage

From October, aid has been scaled back to one point one million people each month. Cuts to deliveries of ration boxes, cash stipends, and hot meals at community kitchens have already been rolled out.

Two-thirds face crisis hunger

Two-thirds of the population in Gaza face crisis levels of food insecurity, phase three under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which assesses if a population is approaching famine.

Two hundred thousand in danger

Food insecurity is at emergency levels for two hundred thousand Palestinians, meaning immediate humanitarian supplies are needed to prevent deaths from hunger. This is phase four, one step away from famine.

Children face permanent damage

One in eight children in Gaza are chronically malnourished or stunted, a recent Unicef survey found, and may have suffered permanent damage after years of food shortages.

Eighty percent unemployment blocks recovery

About eighty percent of Gaza's population is unemployed according to UN data. There is no way for most people to feed their own families at present without humanitarian aid.

Agriculture and fishing destroyed

Gaza was self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables before the war, but the vast majority of farmland has been occupied by Israel's military. The sophisticated greenhouse and irrigation systems have been destroyed.

Families skip meals to survive

Alaa Sarhan, forty, lives with his wife and five children in a tent. He said recently they have had to plan meals around what is available rather than what they want to eat.

“In recent days, we have had to plan our meals around what is available rather than what we want to eat.”

Expensive logistics worsen shortfalls

Israeli restrictions on aid shipments exacerbate funding shortfalls because they make humanitarian work particularly expensive. Limited warehouse space, fuel limits, and complex shipping restrictions push up transport costs.

WFP needs three hundred million pounds

The WFP needs more than three hundred million pounds over the next six months to restore and maintain critical programmes in Palestine. Even an influx of cash might not allow immediate reversal of cuts.

Hughes warns gains are fragile

Shaun Hughes said these are very fragile gains, easily reversed, and the situation is still brutal. Humanitarian aid will be needed at scale until large-scale reconstruction promised last year begins.

“These are very fragile gains, easily reversed, and the situation is still brutal.”